HUMAN RIGHTS “How Can We Work Without Wages?” Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 WATCH “How Can We Work Without Wages?” Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-8431 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. 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For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org AUGUST 2020 ISBN: 978-1-62313-8431 “How Can We Work Without Wages?” Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Kafala at the Heart of Migrant Worker Abuse ............................................................................. 3 Deceptive Recruitment Practices Leave Workers Indebted and Vulnerable .................................4 Harmful Business Practices Punish Workers Most .....................................................................4 Wage Protection System Not Worth the Name ........................................................................... 5 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 7 Key Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 9 To the Qatari Shura Council and Council of Ministers ............................................................... 9 To the Qatari Labor Ministry ..................................................................................................... 9 I. Background ................................................................................................................. 11 The Framework for Enabling Unpaid Wages ............................................................................. 15 Kafala sponsorship system ..................................................................................................... 16 Recruitment Fees: Drowning in Debt ........................................................................................ 19 How Supply Chain Payment Policies Punish Workers Most ...................................................... 21 Qatar’s Efforts to Tackle Unpaid Wages ................................................................................... 23 The Wage “Protection” System ................................................................................................ 25 Labour Dispute Resolution Committees ................................................................................. 28 Workers Support and Insurance Fund ...................................................................................... 33 Additional Measures to Tackle Wage Abuse ............................................................................ 35 II. Employers’ Salary Abuses Against Migrant Workers ................................................... 38 Delayed and Unpaid Wages .................................................................................................... 38 Employers Withholding Wages to Migrant Workers .................................................................. 42 Underpayments of Basic Salary ............................................................................................... 45 Reduced payments ................................................................................................................. 45 Arbitrary Deductions .............................................................................................................. 46 Warehousing ......................................................................................................................... 48 Lack of Overtime Payments ..................................................................................................... 50 Contract Substitution.............................................................................................................. 52 Employers Withholding of End-of-Service Payments ................................................................ 56 Impact of Covid-19 on Migrant Workers’ Wages ....................................................................... 57 III. Qatar’s International Legal Obligations ..................................................................... 63 IV. Recommendations .................................................................................................... 65 To the Shura Council and the Council of Ministers ................................................................... 65 To the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour, and Social Affairs (MADLSA) .............. 67 Regarding Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund .............................................................. 67 Regarding Wage Dispute Complaint Mechanisms .............................................................. 67 Regarding the Wage Protection System ............................................................................ 68 Regarding Recruitment Fees ............................................................................................. 70 Regarding employers ........................................................................................................ 71 Regarding the Covid-19 Pandemic .................................................................................... 72 To the Ministry of Interior, Qatar .............................................................................................. 72 To Qatari banks ...................................................................................................................... 74 To Construction, Labor-Supply, and Other Companies Working in Qatar .................................. 74 To FIFA .................................................................................................................................... 76 V. Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 77 Appendix I: Letter to the Qatar Labor Ministry ................................................................ 79 Appendix II: Letter to the Qatar Interior Ministry ............................................................ 85 Appendix III: Letter to Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) .............. 90 Appendix IV: Letter to the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy .................... 96 Appendix V: Response from the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy ......... 102 Summary When “Henry,” a Kenyan man, received the complete list of required documents that allowed him to work in Qatar, he thought all his prayers had been answered.1 To secure a plumbing job in Qatar, he had to take a loan at a 30 percent interest rate in order to pay a Kenyan recruitment agent a fee of 125,000 Kenyan shillings (US$1,173). But Henry, 26, was happy because his employment contract promised him 1,200 Qatari riyals ($329) a month, which would allow him to pay back his loan, plus an additional food allowance, employer- paid accommodation, and overtime payments for each hour of work he performed above the 8-hours-a-day limit. Upon arriving in Doha in June 2019 however, Henry’s excitement dissipated. The first month, Henry’s employer had no work for him, which meant there would be no pay. The second month, his employer withheld his salary as a ‘security deposit’. To feed himself and his family, Henry was forced to take on more loans. Eventually, in September, he was paid for the first time. But his salary was shockingly low at only 830 Qatari riyals ($228). For two months, during which Henry performed backbreaking work as a plumber for up to 14 hours a day at a hotel in Lusail city, his employer paid him 30 percent less than he was owed in basic wages. “Where was my full salary? Where was the overtime money and food allowance I was owed? I was shocked, but not alone - the company had cheated 13 Kenyan workers along with me,” said Henry. While Henry was battling the bitter realities of working in Qatar as a migrant worker, “Samantha” was getting ready to leave Qatar after being cheated of her basic and overtime salaries for two years.2 Between December 2017 and December 2019, Samantha, a 32-year-old Filipina, either scrubbed bathrooms or swept the food court in an upscale mall in Doha. She told Human Rights Watch that her employer made her work 12-hour shifts, had her and her colleagues’ 1 Name has been changed to protect identity. 2 Name has been changed to protect identity. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | AUGUST 2020 passports confiscated and banned them from leaving the company-provided accommodations for anything other than work. In 2017, when she had made the decision to leave behind her two toddlers to work in Qatar,